Who would have thought this would bring me such joy?

When we moved into this house a year ago, I was quite pleased about having a gas fireplace. (Actually, we have two! There’s one in the basement, too.) The only thing that bummed me out was that the built-in “media center” lacked a MANTLE. Where was I supposed to put my knick-knacks and framed pictures and whatnot?

As you can see in this picture from nearly exactly one year ago, there’s a little “bump” of a mantle barely big enough to set the remote on. (And as you can also see, it’s about time for me to vacuum the blinds again!)

Paul using the central vacuum

No more, though. My handy enginerd husband built me a beautiful mantle! It’s made of pine, designed to match our rustico style coffee table. I LOVE it. This picture doesn’t do it justice at all – it is gorgeous in person!

Mantle!

I had no idea it’d be so easy for him to build, either, or I would have bitched about it a lot more right after we moved in. He built it in just a few hours, stained it that evening, polyurethaned it before bed, and hung it up the next day. And I threw all this Christmas shit up there within about five minutes of him placing the final screw.

Now, I’m dying to put all that Christmas shit AWAY so I can go shopping for new stuff to put on my mantle! Yay!

Carnitas…mmm!

I posted this recipe awhile back (gosh, like three years ago already!) but I thought it was worth posting again. This is the carnitas recipe I’ve used for many years, and it’s one of my husband’s favorite and most-craved dishes.

Carnitas

  • 1 pork roast
  • 1 1/2 quarts chicken stock
  • 1 large onion, quartered
  • 1 T. coriander
  • 1 T. cumin
  • 2 t. oregano
  • 4 canned chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
  • 2 T. sauce from canned chiles
  • 2 bay leaves
  • Water
  • Salt

Cut pork roast in large chunks and place in large pan. Add other ingredients plus enough water to cover pork. Place lid on pan and bring to a boil on high head. Reduce heat and simmer until meat pulls apart easily with a fork (2 to 3 hours.)

Remove pork from broth with slotted spoon and place in baking pan. Let stand until cool. Shred pork with two forks. Bake pork, uncovered, in a 450 degree oven until lightly browned and sizzling (about 20 minutes.)

Serve in corn tortillas with fresh lime. Add shredded cheese, pico de gallo, sour cream, and guacamole if desired. (We just use lime and pico, heavy on the cilantro.) I usually serve this with Spanish rice and cold Coronas!

And now I’m drinking my dinner.

We’re having weird THUNDER SNOW and it seems like it’s causing me to have a weird day. In the span of about half an hour, I…

  • Left my warm house in a blizzard with all my children for apparently no reason, because I ended up dropping Kayley at her dad’s house a half a mile from school. I feel relatively certain if we’d had better communication, K’s dad’s girlfriend could have easily picked her up and saved me the trip. But while I was stuck in the pickup line, I…
  • Sent what I thought was a funny, kind of naughty text to my husband where I mentioned his weiner and the possibility of getting freaky tonight, except I didn’t send it to him. I sent it to HIS BEST FRIEND INSTEAD. So, while I died a thousand deaths, I drove home withOUT Kayley, where I…
  • Got stuck in my own driveway because of all the snow, and had to put my Tahoe in 4wd to get up my driveway, even though we’re NOT SUPPOSED TO USE 4WD AT ALL until we get new tires, because one of our tires is the wrong tread size, and apparently, driving in 4WD while this is the case will cause the engine to fall out or something. I thought I could be sneaky and use 4WD for like, three feet, to get up my driveway and into my garage, but NO, now my Tahoe is STUCK IN 4WD and I’m totally busted! And speaking of busted, I decided to go get the mail while I was out there and I…
  • Fell on my ass between the driveway and the mailbox while wearing Crocs in slippery snow, and left perfect assprints and a left handprint in the snow where I tried to catch myself. I would have taken a picture, but they’ve long been snowed over. While trying to nurse my wounded pride, I called my sister to tell her this story and she laughed at me, and then told my mom about me sending a dirty text to Paul’s friend. Thanks, sissie. Love you!

Colorado springtime snow, you can suck a fat dick. You’ve ruined my whole day!!

I’m LAME.

All of a sudden, I’m feeling hugely conspicuous, with the realization that I’m talking all about my mental and physical health here with people who actually know me in real life. I don’t know why it’s so easy for me to pour my heart out to the internets, but so difficult to share things with people who I see at the bus stop, but…it is. Already, my husband’s friends read stuff here, people from my twin club, naturally my own friends, but now…I just had a brief email exchange with K’s math teacher, and realized that I stupidly emailed her from my personal account with my email signature and blog link. D’oh! I know she’s probably not sitting around reading my blog. I have no doubt she’s busy dealing with apathetic, sarcastic middle schoolers who don’t turn in homework. Honestly, I’d rather deal with my own crazy ass life, dealing with autism and sassy kindergarten mouths and gallbladder attacks, than teach middle school. Those teachers are a special breed, for sure.

Still, though. I’m having a moment here.

Oh! I wanted to share my latest theory, though. While standing in front of an open dryer yesterday, folding lots of tiny pairs of underwear, I conjured up this whole new scenario. I’m thinking, you know – I’m behind on dental cleanings. I didn’t make my last appointment, so now it’s been a good year since I’ve been to the dentist. Maybe I just have some crazy cavity? You know? Like, a complete abscess or something. Maybe I need a root canal, even. Maybe that’s the cause of my headaches, and maybe that’s what they’re seeing on the CT scan – just an abscessed tooth or something. Maybe if I just got my ass to the dentist, we could avoid all of this drama! Six more days until the MRI. And then, knowing Kaiser, it’ll be another six days before they tell me whatever they need to tell me.

I’m not sure what the point is of my writing today. I guess I just need this as an outlet, even with the knowledge that everyone and their uncle reads it. So, I guess I’ll just write a few short notes:

  • Dear Kayley’s Math Teacher: I’m sorry my child doesn’t turn in her homework. I wish I could figure out what I need to do to get her to care about school. I’m just DONE trying to force her to do it. I’m not going to be there to sit next to her and force her to go to her college classes, and force her to show up at her job, and force her to balance her checkbook, so I really just feel like she needs to man up already. But if you have any ideas, I’m all ears.

  • Dear Daughters: Please stop fighting, whining, leaving poop in the toilet, jumping from the dresser to the bed and scaring the crap out of me, and blowing off your homework. You can figure out which of this applies to you.
  • Dear Son: I adore you, little monkey. Please stop screaming every five seconds. People keep staring at us at the grocery store, and I’m afraid in my current state of mind, I’m going to go all Mama Bear on somebody. (Or worse, on YOU.)
  • Dear Husband who doesn’t read this anyway: One more day! One more day and it’s all over! 24 hours from now, you’ll be halfway through the exam. And may I just say, even though you’ve been gone a whole lot, and it’s all been falling on me lately with the children, what an awesome husband you are? Coming home late, missing dinner, not seeing the kids, your head on fire from all the Bernoulli equations and soil classifications, and still – STILL, you take ten minutes to rub my temples and ask about my day! You rock, and I miss you so much, and I’m so happy we’re going to get to hang out soon.
  • Dear Thing In My Head: Please be something easily fixable, or something I can safely ignore for the next 40 years. xo

Okay. I think I’m ready to attack the day.

Weddings and Strollers.

LaLaGirl - Twinfinite Chaos! Just popping in real quick – five more days in the stroller contest, so click the banner and go get entered if you haven’t done so already. Do it!

I’m heading out of town for a minute – the girls and I are going to the wedding of one of my dearest friends from high school. It’s a few hours away and I’m looking forward to getting some time with my little girls, and I know Paul is looking forward to spending a few hours of one-on-one time with the boy.

Tonight is Paul’s brother’s huge 40th birthday bash too, and I may try to go to that if we get back in time – not sure how that’ll play out, though, since I’m going to be on the road for four hours today! I may be ready to just hit the hay when I get back home with the girls.

Off I go!

Big, Bad Biker Gang

So. I didn’t mention this on my blog, because I didn’t want any crazy stalkers coming to pay me a visit, but Paul just got back into town from a little road trip.

He and his buddies trailered their bikes and drove out to California to his aunt’s house, and then they rode all over California – up to Big Bear, all up the PCH, and then to the motorcycle rally in Hollister. They had a blast. I think they got pretty fucking sick of one another too, though – can you imagine sitting in a vehicle with your brother and your dad and two buddies for 40 hours? Yeah. That’s how long they were together in close quarters – 10 hours a day, 2 days there, 2 days back. The actual riding part of it sounds like it was really fun, though.

Did I mention they were gone for TEN FRIGGIN DAYS? Yeah. I was home alone with my five children, losing my mind for ten whole days.

So, I’m heading out of here for the weekend, ALONE. I’m driving up to the mountains to visit my sister, and we’re going to drink wine and giggle a lot. With NO children anywhere around us! I can’t wait. Here I go.

Have a great weekend!

He’s just so damned cute in that helmet.



IMGP2952, originally uploaded by lalagirl.

I just love my dorky biker husband. Le sigh.

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